Speaking words of wisdom

I confess—I’ve had a bit of a week. So my earworm today is the Beatles’ “Let It Be”.

 

Crime matters

Okay, I confess that back in 2016, I thought Cadet Bonespurs was a kleptocrat, a chaos monkey and batshit crazy. I reckoned that he was mostly into the election and presidency for what he could grift out of it—and he certainly showed us over four interminable years how good he was at that.

And I suppose that I understood at some level that if he perceived that he could monetize his access to national security information from one of the best collection of agencies in the world, that would not be off the table.

But pretty sure “Caught red-handed with top secret documents stuffed in boxes along with old news clippings, empty potato chip packets and expired passports” was not on my apocalyptic bingo card.

And yet, here we are.

By way of evidence, I give you these two Twitter threads, because I have no words.

Well—except that carpet is a crime against humanity.

THREAD: What should we make of the DOJ's response to Trump's motion for a Special Master (among other things)?

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) August 31, 2022

"As an initial matter, the former President lacks standing to seek judicial relief or oversight as to Presidential records because those records do not belong to him."https://t.co/ENwsvFo58G pic.twitter.com/FdsMB1HLjX

— Liz Dye (@5DollarFeminist) August 31, 2022

Also, God give me strength, but:

 

Or not

Here’s something else I saw in one of the countless shopping centers along Orchard Road in Singapore:

Yes—trainers that allow you to walk on beer; on Heineken Silver, to be precise. Heinekicks.

I don’t know why, and I didn’t bother to find out how much they cost. All I’m going to say is that the contents of the sole look like an entirely different fluid, and I am not here for that.

 

 

Eggsactly

So, while I was in Singapore, I went to their big shopping district, Orchard Road. I’m not actually a big shopper, but I thought I’d see what all the fuss is about. And there were, indeed, one shopping center right after another, lining both sides of the street, although what I found interesting was they all seemed to have basically the same high-end shops.

I mean, I could have got confused, but I’d see Gucci, Chanel, Prada, Miu Miu and I’d think, “Didn’t I see you at the last mall?”

Any road—here’s something a little out of my ordinary:

I’m not sure how I feel about it, tho.

 

 

 

Gratitude Monday: joyful heroes

We had a CEO update meeting last Thursday; it featured our head of HR, who works from home. She was in what I took to be her home office, and I noticed two pictures over her desk. I took them to by stylized portraits of the late Representative John Lewis (D-GA) and the late Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Friday I got around to emailing to ask her if I was correct. She said I was, and that on another wall she has a portrait of Nelson Mandela. They are her heroes.

I recalled a story in WaPo at the time of Ginsburg’s death, written by the paper’s theatre critic, and I sent it to the HR person. My comments on the three were as follows:

Mandela: forgiveness. (The man spent half his life in prison because White people did not want to give up power. Yet when he got out, he did not seek revenge; he forgave and moved himself and his country forward.)

Ginsburg: love of the arts. (In addition to being a thoughtful, meticulous legal scholar.)

Lewis: spine of titanium and a moral compass set to True North.

Over the weekend, I’ve been thinking about all three, and I believe they had something in common besides their commitment to social justice: look into their eyes in pretty much any photo or video; you’ll see a deep sense of joy. They had an immense capacity for joy, which I think kept Mandela going through all those years in prison and Lewis getting back up after repeatedly being beaten down by Whites with batons. And it kept Ginsburg steadfast in her interpretation of the Constitution.

Today I am grateful for people with the capacity for joy, because I believe that if you can feel joy, you will be inclined to do good. Taking pleasure in the pain or misery of others is not joy; those who do so are filling up on empty calories of junk food emotions. Those who experience joy do not believe we live in a zero-sum world, and therefore encourage the kind of rising tide that raises all boats, not one that raises some while sinking others.

I’m grateful for them for inspiring me to be better, also. I’m grateful to have been reminded of Lewis, Ginsburg and Mandela, and I eagerly look for the next generation of their like.